Reasons why I'm so behind on blogging

My computer is slow.  It tells me that there is only something like 5% storage space left on it.  My photos are taking up that space.  I have them backed up, but can't bring myself to delete them from my computer, because what if I wanted to add one to a blog post?  Oooooh, wait....I can't.....'cause my computer's too slow...

School is out.  And it's wonderful.  Abby graduated preschool.  Eliza graduated from "mommy preschool" and Grace is done with first grade!  I really hate schedules and I really like my kids, so this is heaven. Funny how three or four years ago I'd have loved to have my kids gone for just a small portion of the day.  And don't get me wrong, I do like having my kids away from each other, but i like even more that we can sleep in, have waffles and german pancakes on weekdays, go to the library together, and not even look at the clock until it's 1pm and we're just realizing it's past lunch time.  But it also means I don't have a single minute of alone time during the day.  Which results in unproductive evenings.  Apparently.

But, on the productive side, we are building a stage in the basement.  It's gonna be awesome.  I've taken every shortcut possible yet it's still taken way more time than it did when I planned it out in my mind.  It might get finished this weekend.  But probably not, because....

We have to rip out the ceiling of our downstairs bathroom.  The upstairs toilet was leaking, so I called a plumber.  That plumber informed me that the ring around my upstairs tub was also leaking ever so slightly.  He'd be back in a few hours to fix both issues--buuuuut we might have mold.  Yikes!!

Well, the mold inspector came about 3 hours before the plumber returned, and he gave us great news--we didn't have mold!!  Which meant we wouldn't have to rip out that downstairs bathroom ceiling!!  Good thing, 'cause that ceiling is tiled and what a pain that would be!  Sadly, the plumber came back.  And as he was finishing up the job, i heard a LOUD crack followed by a few muffled obscenities.  He'd broken the pipe that's under our tub.  And now the "ever so slight" leak is a waterfall onto that tiled bathroom ceiling, seeping  through the cracks in the grout.  And how do we access that cracked pipe on the bottom of the upstairs tub?  By ripping out the ceiling of the room it's sitting on.  The one that we just learned doesn't need to be ripped out.  Lovely.

Oh, and we can't use the upstairs shower until it's all fixed.  On the bright side, I average about one shower a month, and it happened to be that morning.  So I'm not put out at all and Reid and the kids shower/bathe downstairs.

The day before the plumbing fiasco we'd gotten back from an amazingly wonderful 8 day visit at my dad's house.  Grace had gotten a nasty cough that kept her up night after night.  I tried a menthol cough drop one night and it made her puke--which reminded me of the time i put Vicks Vaporub in her humidifier and she puked.  No more menthol for her!. I hoped this cough would go away.  But it stayed.  For 10 days.  And after Wednesday night's coughing fits and "mom, my coughing only goes away when i'm in your bed"s I decided I'd better get her in to the doc.  It's apparently a good thing that I did.  Her oxygen was low, her lungs were wheezy, and the dr. is convinced this wasn't going away on it's own.  She got an albuterol treatment plus a dosage of millipred.  Grace's first encounter with anything of the sort.  No biggie, right?

Maybe.  Two hours later, when Grace was at the eye doctor, I noticed her coloring was off.  I kept asking her if she was okay.  So did the doctor.  She was yellow.  Like baby jaundice yellow.  But a paler, greener version.  We still finished up the appointment because after hauling all FOUR of my kids to TWO doctor's offices in ONE day, i wasn't leaving without a diagnosis.  Which is that Grace does, indeed, need glasses.  It explains so much--especially her headaches.  I only wish I would've thought of this back in March when they really started!  She pretends she doesn't want the glasses, but I can tell she's excited about it.  What kid doesn't secretly want glasses and a retainer?  (please say I'm not the only one.   Bent, reshaped paper clips?  anyone? anyone?)

Well, she stayed split-pea yellow all evening.  The dr. wasn't too worried about it.  Grace was, afterall, acting very normal.  And so I tried to be not too worried about it.  And this morning she woke up much closer to normal--but still pale.  So, I guess we'll never know for sure what happened.  Her dr. is sure it wasn't the steroids. I just think that the timing is too coincidental not to be that.  Plus I hate the thought of putting "steroids" into my kids--so I'm going to blame them.  Either way, she's doing much better. The yellow's gone.  She's got a little more pink in her skin.  And she's excited about her new purple glasses.

With all of this happening moments of arriving back in town, i'm feeling buried up to my nostrils in laundry and cleaning and even getting ready for our next trip.  Laundry, like so many other mundane stay-at-home mom requirements, is easier with two hands--a luxury I'm currently living without. My baby is so madly in love with me that he just wants to be in my arms all the time.  And how can I resist when the feeling is mutual!

James turns one tomorrow.  I don't know how that happened.  I took all the batteries out of all of our clocks, and unplugged every appliance, but time just kept on tickin'.  And now he's ONE!  I'd like to say that some of my would-be blogging time has been dedicated to birthday preparations, but that'd be a lie.  I've got absolutely nothing prepared.  No presents purchased.  And no plans to do so.  I asked the girls what they thought he'd like to do for his birthday, and their lists looked suspiciously similar to what they would like to do for their birthdays.  So, if the ceiling demo doesn't take too long, I'll probably make him some ridiculous whole wheat carrot cake with sugarless cream-cheese frosting, and give him what he really wants--for me to just hold him every waking moment, except when he wants to crawl around, at which point I'll lay near him on the floor.  It will be the best day of his life.  And maybe mine.